Why Here History

Why Here:
•1969 Fred Eckhardt Publishes a Treatsie on Lager Beers in Portland, Oregon
•1974 Produce Row opened by a group of people including Mike McMenamin
•1978 Homebrewing is legalized by President Jimmy Carter
•1981 Charles Coury Opens Cartwright Brewing in Portland, Oregon
•1984 By May 1st, 4 brewing companies are incorporated: Portland Brewing Company, Full Sail Brewing Company, Widmer Brothers Brewing and BridgePort Brewing Company(these are the current names for each brewery)
•1985 (July) Oregon State Legislature legalizes the ability for a brewery to sell the beer it makes on premise over the bar, starting the brewpub movement-the bill is signed by the governor
•1985 (October) McMenamins opens the Hillsdale Brewery and Pub, the first brewpub in OR (2nd in US)
•Great Western Malting in Vancouver sells malt to small breweries
•Almost perfect brewing water, very soft and tastes great
•Oregon is #2 Hop Growing region in US growing aroma and flavor hop varieties favored by micro and home brewers
•Strong tavern culture –up until 1999 there was a limit on number of liquor licenses
•Strong homebrewing community, older than any of the microbreweries-most local brewers started as homebrewers
•2013 Governor signed HCR 12 into law, the resolution designating Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or “brewer’s yeast,” as the official microbe of Oregon, making Oregon the first state in the nation to have an official state microbe